A child gazes from a school bus as it passes by the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church while mourners gathered for a funeral service in Newtown, Conn. Four days after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, most students in Newtown returned to school.

Photograph by: John Moore
, Getty Images

Like every other major tragedy in U.S. history, a community of conspiracy theorists is springing up around the events of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings.

These "truthers" are positing that the entire event, in which 20 children and 6 adult school staff members were killed by gunman Adam Lanza, was staged to push a government agenda. In this case, that agenda is making the U.S. public afraid so that they'll be more dependent on government, as well as forcing a referendum on gun control. Some have even tied it to the LIBOR banking scandal.

"You know in your heart that no one could walk into a school and start shooting defenseless little kids," writes Jay Johnson, on his website, SandyHookHoax.com. "They are trying to alter mass perception of the human condition, so that people feel insecure and trust only the government to make things safe."

The major piece of evidence these Sandy Hook truthers point to is Emilie Parker, one of the 20 children killed in the massacre. In a pre-shooting photograph, she's seen wearing a flowered red and black dress. Days after the shooting, a girl that looks similar to her is standing with a kneeling President Obama, wearing the same dress.

While it's been suggested that the girl might be her sister, since siblings often look alike and since parents of yonug children often reuse or buy multiples of the same outfit, Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists insist it's the same girl. This is evidence, they suggest, that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax.

A Youtube video pointing out the similarities between the two girls -- as well as asking questions about other facts of the investigation -- has begun to go viral, with over 300,000 views.

The video also features footage of Parker's aggrieved father laughing before speaking mournfully at a press conference after the shooting. The narrator suggests that the man is an actor and that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a "made-for-TV event".

"If America was still a free country," says the video's narrator, "All of the adults that participated in this cover-up would be prosecuted as accessories after the fact in a mass murder."

Another, much more in-depth video on the same topic has racked up over 5 million pageviews in a week.

The truthers have begun to harass individuals near the school they believe are involved in the hoax. One man, Gene Rosen, who sheltered six students that showed up on his driveway saying they couldn't go back to school because "our teacher is dead", has been receiving threatening phone calls. He has been featured in blog posts exposing him as a fraud. Photos of Rosen's house have also been posted online.

Rosen shared his story with Salon.com, who also passed along a letter they received from a reader. "You reported in December that this little girl had been killed," the reader said. "She has been found, and photographed with President Obama."

Now, a member of the media has joined the fray. Ben Swann, an anchor at the local Fox affiliate in Cincinnati, posted a Youtube video arguing that "there’s a good reason to question this whole narrative."

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A child gazes from a school bus as it passes by the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church while mourners gathered for a funeral service in Newtown, Conn. Four days after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, most students in Newtown returned to school.